egafd.com

Its all in the timing of the post G

2 pages of frivilous/funny topics posted in rapid time should have given you a hint that a serious topic wasn't going to get a serious response

what d'ya mean deuce? We're being extremely serious tonight. Talking about serious issues and stuff.

Its always different from the outside

As a former member of a 3 ring drunken circus(magoo,jj & Buttsie) that used to have far too many 'SERIOUS discussions' much to the chagrin of most others,I know where your coming from

tony Blur

beans

There are some around here who think JJ and Magoo are the same person.

NOT me, I hasten to add.

Internet = walt disney

Conspiracy theories are ultimately pointles if you can't prove them

V true. But some just can't be told.

And thanks for O/Ting me.

To get back on topic, I'll check out for a repeat of the Windscale programme, Keith. Thanks for the heads up.

As head milk monitor its my sworn duty to uphold the FAQ...

I can recall reading the windscale book 15/20 years ago and thinking what a disaster,not the fire but the flushing of waste into the irish sea

In the light of everything that has happened since, with Cumbrian beaches closed because of radiation from Windscale, and revelations that large amounts of radiation were flushed down its pipeline to the Irish Sea for decades, the 1957 fire may now seem a slightly abstract thing to worry about. But stories from the US and the former Soviet Union make it clear that nuclear arms races are not conducive to good practice with fissile material.

In any case, as Arnold reminds us, the Windscale piles are still there, jammed with radioactivity and in an unknown physical condition. Work now going on should produce a policy for dealing with them, but years from now they will still be a peril and a reminder of the threats inherent in the business of atomic power.

Martin Ince is science correspondent for The Higher Education Supplement.